" In light of Ignatius' 'Two Standards' and 'The Mystries Done From The Garden To The House Of Annas', at any moment we can be Judas or Peter, a Christian life can be a fine line."

Friday, August 28, 2009

Yet Another Former Jesuit With Issues

Michael McGirr goal on leaving the Jesuit order was to buy a house and make a fresh start away from Melbourne. His paltry savings, combined with the Government's first-home buyer grant, bought him a home in Gunning, about an hour from Canberra, where he earned a living as a freelance writer and editor.

Less than five years after leaving the priesthood, he'd managed to purchase a house, get married and have three children.....

The Sydney-born McGirr says he's not quite sure what drew him to the priesthood, straight from school, in 1980.

''It was an impulsive thing. My father died at the end of September and I joined in the following February. It was a difficult time in my life and I suppose I was very vulnerable. I'm just glad I didn't join anything destructive.''

He spent 14 years training, then seven years as an ordained priest working in the Melbourne-based Jesuit Publications, including editing Australian Catholic and publishing Eureka Street magazine.

For a priest who loved English and writing, it was a dream job. But, at the end of 2000, McGirr left the Jesuits.

''I was nearly 40, I loved the work, I loved the community but I just wanted a nest,''

he says. ''One of the things about being a Jesuit is you go anywhere they send you ... But I knew that for my own wellbeing I needed to be with someone. I had to follow that inner voice.''

His friends in the order seemed relieved he'd chosen to leave. '

'They said: 'We're very fond of you but we can see you've been struggling with this for a long time.'''

He has not, however, abandoned the church altogether; his job for the past three years has been head of faith and mission at a private Melbourne boys' secondary school. It's priestly work - but he's not allowed to say the Mass for the boys, a church rule he describes as ''incomprehensible".

My understanding of former priests saying mass is that they may NOT say a public nor a private mass for a congregation or server but MAY (I think with the Bishops permission) say mass ALONE BY THEMSELVES.

This raises the possibility of a former priest, in reparation, secretly saying masses alone, everyday, with good intentions 'for the boys'.

Surely this situation, though tragic, IS comprehensible and perhaps may bear more fruit even if done in secret?

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.